Religion and Ecclcsiasticism 83 



centration on artistic pursuits or much 

 enjoyment of terrestrial existence when it 

 was liable to be violently extinguished 

 at any moment : sufficient that the early 

 Church survived its struggle for existence. 

 But if he is referring to mediaeval Christianity, 

 of any other than a debased kind, common 

 knowledge concerning mediaeval art and 

 architecture sufficiently rebuts the indict- 

 ment. So much so, that one may almost 

 wonder if by chance he happened to be 

 thinking of " Mohammedanism " rather 

 than of Christianity. 



But he continues, in a more practical and 

 observant vein : 



" Christianity has no place for that well-known 

 love of animals, that sympathy with the nearly- 

 related and friendly mammals (dogs, horses, catde, 

 etc.) which is urged in the ethical teaching of 

 many of the older religions, especially Buddhism. 

 (Unfortunately, Descartes gave some support to 

 the error in teaching that man only has a sensitive 

 soul, not the animal.) Whoever has spent much 

 time in the south of Europe must have often 

 witnessed those frightful sufferings of animals 

 which fill us friends of animals with the deepest 



